house, where after some time in the indulgence of personal grief, the oath of the Greater Office was taken by Mr. Roosevelt, and he was the XXVth President of the United States. When the moment came to be sworn and assume the imposing responsibility, he stood erect, held up his right hand, and made the response with a firm voice. It was Secretary of War Root who called Mr. Roosevelt "Vice-President" for the last time, and made the suggestion that there should be no delay in answering the requirement of the law. Mr. Root was present when Chester A. Arthur took the oath of office, at his own residence on Lexington avenue, New York, a few days later in the month of September, twenty years ago. The two Presidents assassinated were from Northeastern Ohio, and the Vice-Presidents succeeding were of the City of New York. An eye witness wrote of taking the oath by President Roosevelt: "The scene was a most affecting one. The new President had just come from the Milburn house, where his predecessor lay cold in death. Overcome by the deep personal sorrow he felt, in his characteristically impulsive way he had gone first to the house of mourning to offer his condolence and sympathy to the broken-hearted widow. Secretary Root, who, twenty years ago, had been present at a similar scene, when Arthur took the oath after the death of another President who fell a victim to an assassin's bullet, almost broke down when he requested Mr. Roosevelt, on behalf of the members of the Cabinet of the late President, to take the prescribed oath. There was not a dry eye in the room. The new President was visibly shaken, but he controlled, himself, and when he lifted his hand to swear, it was steady as though carved in marble. The taking of the oath was an impressive though practically private ceremony. Secretary Root had a personal talk with Mr. Roosevelt, then, stepping back, said in an almost inaudible voice: 'Mr. Vice-President, I Then his voice broke, and for fully two minutes the tears came down his face and his lips quivered so that he could not continue his utterances. There were sympathetic tears from those about him, and two great drops ran down either cheek of the successor of William McKinley. Mr. Root's chin was on his breast. Suddenly throwing back his head, as if with an effort, he continued in a broken voice." The communication made by Mr. Root was that the Cabinet desired, for reasons of State, that there should be no delay. When Vice-President Roosevelt took the oath, and was truly President, he said: "In this hour of deep and terrible National bereavement, I wish to state it shall be my intention and endeavor to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley, for the peace and prosperity and honor of our beloved country." These words were received throughout the Nation, and the world of civilization, with a profound sense that they were dignified, patriotic, loyal to all the sensibilities that were becoming, and gave security to the interests of the people at large, having just lost their leader, who had left them in the enjoyment of an unexampled prosperity. September 18th it was given out officially by Postmaster General Smith, in Washington, that the members of the McKinley Cabinet agreed to remain. as the Cabinet of President Roosevelt. They all met him on the 17th, and the President insisted that the situation should be treated as if he were entering on a new term, and the offices had been tendered the members of the Cabinet without condition. He would accept no declinations and each Cabinet officer expressed his intention of remaining. The President reiterated his statement that he would follow the policy of President McKinley, and that was expressed in his Buffalo speech. The members of the Cabinet assembled at the request of the President in the drawingroom of Commander Cowles' home. When they arrived, the President told them that he believed he ought to make it clear, once for all, that he meant what he said at Buffalo when he declared that he intended to follow the policy of the late President. There was, he said, no better way than by keeping as his advisers the men who had aided the President in bringing such magnificent results to the country. "I want each of you gentlemen," he said, "to remain as a member of my Cabinet. I need your advice and counsel. I tender you the office in the same manner that I would tender it if I were entering upon the discharge of my duties as the result of an election by the people. With this distinction, however," the President continued, laying emphasis on his words, "that I can not accept a declination." Having made this declaration, the President asked each member personally to remain and each Cabinet official in response to the request agreed that there should be no interruption, and they would remain as loyal to aid the new President in the discharge of his duties as they had endeavored to aid the late President. THE FIRST PROCLAMATION OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. "By the President of the United States of America. A proclamation: "A terrible bereavement has befallen our people. The President of the United States has been struck down; a crime committed not only against the Chief Magistrate, but against every law-abiding and liberty-loving citizen. "President McKinley crowned a life of largest love for his fellow-men, of most earnest endeavor for their welfare, by a death of Christian fortitude; and both the way in which he lived his life and the way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, he met his death, will remain forever a precious heritage of our people. "It is meet that we, as a Nation, express our abiding love and reverence for his life, our deep sorrow for his untimely death. "Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do appoint Thursday next, September nineteenth, the day in which the body of the dead President will be laid in its last earthly resting-place, a day of mourning and prayer throughout the United States. "I earnestly recommend all the people to assemble on that day in their respective places of divine worship, there to bow down in submission to the will of Almighty God, and to pay out of full hearts their homage of love and reverence to the great and good President whose death has smitten the Nation with bitter grief. "In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. "Done at the city of Washington the fourteenth day of September, A.D. one thousand nine hundred and one, and of the independence of the United States the one-hundred-and-twenty-sixth. "THEODORE ROOSEVELT." "By the President, John Hay, Secretary of State." President Roosevelt through all public positions he has held in his college life, his adventurous ranch life, has so labored with his pen as to within a little more than twenty years fill a library shelf with valuable books abounding in new things, bright and strong things, besides a great deal of magazine work and essays, addresses, speeches on a strange variety of subjects, fearlessly attacking a wide range of the public problems, so that there is not a theme concerning the American people that he has not studied and given the results of his investigations in well drawn forms and under a strong light, manifesting a very rare intellectuality and individuality, as well as an irrepressible industry, making plain the presence of character at once impulsive and considerate, impetuous but conservative, passionate yet methodical, picturesque, and, after all, philosophical-a politician that is for the organization of his party, and at the same time a reformer who stands all hazzards of radical contention. He is as American as any one can be of European descent, with an old name written in Holland history, but blood in greater part from the British Islands; a Republican, but half Southern in origin—proud of the valor in the lost cause of Southern relatives-a revolutionist in Southern appointments, proposing to give the Republican party a fair chance among the Southern whites; who invites a black man to his table, and is careless whether he has offended, and without knowledge or sentiment that tells him he is mistaken in such a course if he is going on a politician. He is a new type of man for President, because few have reached the great office without a studious course of petting the people, by finding their favorite weaknesses. This man has faith in the integrity that is robust. There |